buying a laptop either bare or with Ubuntu

[Jarod Wilson]

On Nov 26, 2008, at 4:30 PM, Lloyd Kvam <python at venix.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 2008-11-13 at 20:24 -0500, Nikkiana H. wrote:
>> I bought both the Studio 15 and the Mini recently and am pretty happy
>> with them.
>
> Well the Dell Studio 15 arrived yesterday.  When I tried to boot it,  
> the
> splash screens and text boot messages worked fine.  However, when it
> came time to draw the desktop, the screen changed to a bright  
> background
> with colored pinstripes running vertically.  The bundled diagnostics
> (from the boot menu) pass and an external monitor shows a normal  
> Ubuntu
> desktop.
>
> I tried the Dell on-line chat support and was given a number for  
> Ubuntu
> support.
>
> This turned out to be Canonical.  The person I spoke to said he had
> heard that Dell switched LCD screens on the Studio 15 production line
> without properly testing the new screens.  Ubuntu is not working with
> those new LCD screens.
>
> He gave me the Dell Ubuntu support phone number.  When I called, they
> said they have no fix.  I can replace my laptop as defective, but they
> do not expect the replacement to work any better.
>
> My guess (as a software guy) as to what is going on:  Ubuntu is only
> detecting 4:3 resolutions from the video controller and the LCD screen
> only supports 16:9 (or 16:10) resolutions.  I fiddled the xorg.conf  
> with
> no success using an external monitor.  I could only get 4:3  
> resolutions
> to show on the external monitor.  Attempts to force 1280x800 which is
> the documented resolution for the LCD resulted in a 640x480 screen on
> the external monitor.  None of these had any impact on the built-in  
> LCD
> screen.
>
> I'm returning the laptop to Dell and will buy something else.

Don't suppose you would be willing to see how a fedora 10 live cd  
behaves before you do?...

--jarod